After several months of detente in the Republic, conflict has broken out again ... which is to say that after several months of summer distractions, I'm getting back to Armada.

I flew squad-heavy Sloane:

https://armada.ryankingston.com/fleet/28814/

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Name: ISDII Sloane Defenders + Quasar + 2
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)
• Admiral Sloane (24)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Avenger (5)
= 160 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Taskmaster Grint (5)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Squall (3)
= 66 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
= 31 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• JumpMaster 5000 (12)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• 3 x TIE Defender Squadron (48)
• Valen Rudor (13)
• Ciena Ree (17)
= 111 Points

Total Points: 393

@racknut flew Big-ships Madine:

https://armada.ryankingston.com/fleet/28673/

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Name: *20.5 (Madine LSC+2xMC75OC)
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Solar Corona

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• General Madine (30)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Spinal Armament (9)
= 154 Points

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
= 114 Points

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• External Racks (3)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
= 112 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 400

The photo shows the end of round two. My Quasar had finally gotten into the action and chewed off shields on the top MC75 over round 2 and three. But the Rebel had his big ships converged onto my ISD.

At the start of round three, the ISD had a brilliant roll (show below) that killed that top MC75. But due to the GR75 position, the ISD could not navigate out at speed 2. The flotilla took a card and the ISD moved forward at speed 1. The remaining two big ships rolled and stripped the shields from the side, top and bottom, and put on seven cards of hull damage. The Quasar used a squad and front arc to kill the GR75 and moved at speed three, almost vertical and ahead of the ISD.

Round four the ISD launched a feeble side attack on the remaining MC75. But the Quasar had moved in too close and the ISD could not move out at speed two or three. It moved up at speed one, taking a card. The MC75 rolled a ridonkulous group of dice and the the ISD was dead. That MC75 flew onto the station.

Round five, The Gozantis I'd prepped with squadron commands and they put some squadrons onto the second MC75. The Quasar still had reach to several Defenders and it chewed on the MC75 and taking it down. However, its final vector was too vertical, and it couldn't stay on the board. It was lost. And I was tabled, having only squads and flotillas remaining to my opponents remaining MC80.

Some additional comments:

I won the bid at 393 vs 400 points. I chose first player, wanting first move to have the choice of Squadrons or ISD attack to start. Also being out activated, I didn't want to give my opponent last-first attack opportunities with four big ships. I selected Solar Corona for the Objective, as I was not depending on accuracy generation for my game, and the other two objectives were too obviously dangerous.

While Solar Corona per se wasn't bad, what killed me was having to deploy first. I was too spread out with the Quasar and Goz BCC on my far right; he then put his ships all on my left (his right) to threaten my ISD, and keeping them away from the squads. I lost at least a full turn of Sloane attacks just getting Q and Squads into position.

Additionally, I meant to fly 6 Defenders total. Then I realized I only have four total in my kit, so I swapped out for Ciena and Valen. On this fleet, those two extra Defenders would have helped.

Overall, I like the bomber heavy fleet. It requires a level of deployment and fleet-flying coordination that is still somewhat outside my skills. Because I rolled all hits/crits with my squads, I basically didn't get any value out of Sloane this game. BCC + Defenders alone is pretty potent if I could keep the squads in range.

I tried Squall for the first time over Pursuant. I got some value out of that extra push in correcting for my deployment problems, and didn't really miss Pursuant, which has been my go-to Quasar title.

Positiong keep me from getting use out of Leading Shots on the ISD. First attack was Long range, so all red dice. And they were 3/5 blanks (sigh). Then the close range shot was so good I didn't need my Concentrate Fire command or Leading Shots to modify. After that, I was out of position and couldn't get Leading Shots use. That's where Solar Corona hurt me, was tossing a blue die that could have help slightly with Leading Shots.

I think flying an ISD against a Madine Fleet, I need to stack it with Navigate Commands rather than Concentrate Fire or even Engineering (late game).

I needed to change my deployment to allow for any possible deployment from the opponent.

@racknut had an interesting and different flew, and he flew it well. It was good to fly my new experiments with Sloane against a fleet that takes the opposite design philosophy (big ships, no squads). It was a fun game. I flew about as well as I can, and made smart choices. There were some tactical decisions that should have been different in hindsight, but that's a chance to learn. I now have internalized the "tabling" ruling from the last FAQ; I didn't realize what that meant and why it mattered. But mostly I left thinking it's possible defeat a big-ships fleet with Sloane: not easily, but it's not hopeless.